In this era of social distancing, those of you with housekeepers, nannies, elder-care aides, cleaners, gardeners, mother’s helpers, babysitters, personal assistants, chauffeurs (?) etc.
Are you social distancing from them? If so, how? Do they come to your home when you are out? do you stay in separate rooms when they are in your home? have you laid off’?
etc.
If you choose not to utilize their services during this crisis, do you pay / not pay?
I ask because I have seen a number of posts on ‘Nextdoor’ where people have very conflicting ideas on how to handle this.
We have a hairdresser that we call for appointments who comes to our house. She also works at an elementary school and other venues. We haven’t called her — normally would have. Hope she’s doing ok. We don’t have any other help that comes to our home.
@momo2x2018 — its only $20 or $40 and only every 4 to 8 weeks or so (depending on if it’s just me or H and me). Not a huge amount but she does work at the elementary school, MD office and retail, so lots of exposure to the germy public.
My gardener/lawn mower stays outside the whole time and I can either mail him a check or put it in envelope in my mail slot. If I need to talk to him I can from my deck.
I will leave it up to my cleaning person if she wants to come or not. I can sit outside while she is here or if it’s cold, take a drive in the country.
I will pay her regardless,
I’ve cancelled my hair appointment last Friday (I go once a week because it hurts my tennis elbow to do my own hair. But, I’m still able to do it. I am still paying her though.
My reno is scheduled to start at the end of April. I told my contractor I will reassess closer to start date as I don’t want workers in and out and dust/dirt all over everything. Plus, it’s not a good time to be without my washer and dryer.
This is being discussed on my neighborhood facebook page. Most everyone is saying they will pay even if they cancel their housekeeping services. At present I plan to have them come, and can give them Nitrile gloves and disinfectant cleaning products. DH is working form home so the vacuum might be a challenge for him (my working from home is pretty limited at the moment) and I think they can probably do a better job of cleaning this place than I can. But we don’t have to decide this at the moment. Can defer the decision til next week.
I let my cleaning woman come last Saturday. I think she’s one of the cleanest people I know, plus she is working with every kind of cleaning solution, am I not bothered because it is one person, whom I’ve known for years? She certainly cleans my house better than I do.
Our situation is like @bookworm . One person who has cleaned our house every three weeks for years. We will be here but will keep our distance. I have another 10 days, but I plan to have her come and clean.
We just started with new cleaning people 2 weeks ago. They were supposed to clean today but didn’t show up. If they show up they can clean, but if they don’t they won’t be paid.
I plan to have my cleaning lady come Friday. She’s come to my house for years. I don’t worry about her per se but do have concerns about her helper(s). She doesn’t always bring the same person and, on occasion, brings two people. I’m going to talk with her tomorrow about my concerns. Hand washing when the ladies enter is required, of course. Like others have said, the ladies then work with cleaning chemicals which should make the virus think twice.
In addition, I plan to stay upstairs and have them clean the downstairs only. I’ll remain upstairs an hour or more after they leave as a just in case measure.
I am really worried that right now, most people still feel somewhat secured with their job and they continue to give. But when the recession hits, like people actually lose their job permanently, it’s much harder to be generous. Everyone hurts then.
My housekeeper comes once a week and was here Monday when the order came out that starting Tuesday we’d be under ‘shelter in place’. Tuesday my housekeeper texted and said she couldn’t come for the next 3 weeks. We will pay her for the 3 weeks and we did share that, if she decides she wants to come, we would be happy to have her.
We were surprised that the gardener came today. We don’t interact with him directly when he’s here and I’m guessing he’s not supposed to be working but I’m sure he wants to work.
I heard tonight that 18% of Americans have either lost their jobs or have had their hours cut. Paying service workers during these times is a small thing to do if it’s not a hardship.
We also cancelled cleaning & are still paying. Cleaner is in a high-risk group with a rare chronic lung disease.
We are taking our dog to the groomer on Friday.
The pet salon I go to has closed. The owner and one other person are with the few dogs and cats whose owners boarded them. Hopefully they are all back home and picked up their dogs cats.
My vet is open and only doing drive up drop offs and pickups.
I saw several lawn services out doing yard cleanups yesterday when I went for my walk.
Similar to @emilybee our vet is staging everyone in parking lot and bringing patients in one at a time.
Groomer is the only one working in her space, but she works at a larger busier one in another town a couple of days a week. I’m going to cancel and pay her. She and I would be able to maintain distance, I think, but my mother is 89 and my husband works for a VA Medical Center – I can’t risk passing anything in either direction.
And expect to see me a lot on the Say It Here thread – I’ll be grooming my two Briards by myself!